--- Warning - long post! ---
I am so excited even writing this post as I have always wanted to go Salzburg after watching Sound of Music when I was young. I can still remember listening to the songs Do-Re-Mi, My Favourite Things, etc on this cassette tape my aunt got me years ago and then after watching the movie, that's it - Salzburg became one of my must-go places, and even more after knowing it is Mozart's birthplace. Indeed, it is a musical city and in Salzburg, you just cannot ignore Mozart's existence. He is everywhere - airport, streets, cafes all named after him, and even his own bridge - the Mozart Footbridge.
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| Upclose and personal with Mr Mozart |
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| Poor Mozart hidden between two Carlsberg tents due to the Euro2008 game |
Overall, Salzburg is a small city mainly the Old Town and the New Town. Many of the historic buildings are in the Old Town so we spent most of our weekend there. Now that Euro2008 is taking place esp this year in Austria & Switzerland, we can feel it everywhere too which is cool but unfortunately neither of us are soccer fans. duh.
Day One (Sat)
Our flight on sat was at 630 am and we had to wake up at 230am (just merely took a 2h+ nap) and we had to hurry out of the house. When we touched down W.A. Mozart airport, wow we were greeted by mountains as the backdrop and we knew immediately it would be a great trip. haha
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| Just landed! At the W.A. Mozart airport |
After settling down at our hotel (yippee finally we are staying in a nice hotel and not hostel), we asked the concierge to help confirm our Sound of Music tour for Sunday morning (first highlight of our trip) and also for our second highlight, Mozart Concert dinner at St. Peters! Supposedly very posh with formal dresscode and we came well prepared! *wink*
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| The famous Mozart balls |
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| Outside a choc stall selling the Mozart balls |
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| Mozart's birthplace |
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| Enjoying ice cream in the hot weather - we ate two each! |
Weather was
so hot and sunny.. ok not that we are complaining lah coz deprived of sunshine in London.. but it was 35deg (!!) and must say we have not perspired for 2 months till today! whoaa cannot take it and we had two ice creams each hahaa.. mmm so nice and satisfying. Every few minutes we'd see horse drawn carriages down the roads and err unfortunately saw some horses poo-poo on the road as well (eeeee..) the shopping street Getreidegasse Lane is a really nice shopping street and we got distracted and shopped at Zara, H&M for a while hehe.. and of coz Salzburg souvenirs.. so touristy I know!
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People in Salzburg love bringing their pooches out for a walk.
(Pris - please translate what the sign means?) |
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| In front of some fountain |
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| Exquisit hand crafted Easter eggshells. How pretty and delicate! |
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| Horse drawn carriages about town |
Walked for whole afternoon and we had to go back hotel and get ready for our dinner! hooray.. so excited.. but before that we set off for the Festung Hohensalzburg fortress which supposedly has a great view of Salzburg. Also went into St Peter's Cathedral and walked around some more in the Old Town.
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| Up on the Hohensalzburg fortress with a great view |
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| It was a fast 30 sec cable tram ride |
Dinner was so good. The musicians played all Mozart pieces (Marriage of Figaro, nice! think it's the first time I hear the harpsichord being played live) and there were two main singers (they sang 2 operas written by Mozart: Don Giovanni & another err it was in German, can't remember). Might sound boring but the pieces they picked had those well known recognisable tunes we have come across some point in time, so it was not bad even though they sang in Italian and German!) The seating arrangement was such that we were seated in tables of 8 and reminded us of wedding dinners back home. Initially a bit uncomfortable coz we had a family of 4 on one side, and another old couple who looked very aristocratic but later as dinner started we all slowly started talking and it wasn't that bad after all! The German couple, super "shang-deng" looking even recommended us their 'must-go European cities', like Florence (hint - Mimi!!), Rome (jiemeis, good choice eh!) and Prague. You should definitely do this dinner when you come.
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| Excited |
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| In the grand hall - a Baroque styled ballroom of St Peters |
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| The musicians |
After our hearty dinner, we walked past St Peter's Square where it was showing live telecast of the match between Russia and Netherlands. It was nearing the end and the crowd was going bollocks. I was quite surprised to see so many Russia fans and they were yelling and waving the flag madly (really quite an atmosphere). And we bravely joined the crowd at the square wanting to feel this atmosphere haha.. ooohh.. we saw the third goal went in and seriously they just went mad. And then we saw many Netherlands fans walk out of the square looking so dejected. And when it ended we quickly walked out too, back to our hotel haha.. scary leh so fierce those fans.
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| Before the dinner |
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| After the dinner - look at the Russian supporters |
Day Two
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| My mecca trip! |
Second highlight- Sound of Music tour! This tour is so cool, they brought us to many of the shooting locations of the movie and guess what it was 38deg (!!!!) we thought we could melt. Our guide dressed up in traditional Austrian costume, was very entertaining and kept making us sing the songs from the movie. I was so happy to be on this tour and they brought us out of Salzburg, to the Lake District where we saw more mountains and lakes (Lake Fuschl was amazing).
Monsee is a small town outside Salzburg too and such a pretty quaint town which reminded us of Bergen in Norway. We went to see the cathedral which they filmed the wedding scene between Maria and Georg von trapp. very very nice tour - highly recommended too! Luckily both of us watched the movie just before we came for this tour so the scenes she mentioned are still fresh in our minds.
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| Recognise this gazebo used in the film? Yes this is the original one in Hellbrunn Palace now! |
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| The cathedral in Mondsee where they filmed the wedding scene |
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| In Mirabell Gardens - C'mon let's sing "Doe, a deer, a female deer…" |
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| The lake behind Leopoldskron Palace. I recognised this when I saw it! The behind of this palace was used as the house of Captain Von Trapp and family. |
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| Wow - Lake Mondsee! |
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Lake Fuschl - what a beautiful shimmering emerald green under the sunlight.
This was a lucky shot taken from the bus. |
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Enjoying the local Apple Strudel with 3 big scoops of ice cream and cinnamon powder.
Also posing happily with my Austrian souvenirs. |
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| Colourful buildings in Mondsee which remind me a little of Bergen, Norway |
Back in Salzburg, we were very sad that it is a dead town on Sundays! Only a handful of shops (esp souvenir shops) are opened and that's it. haizz.. we went to this cafe recommended by Pat (Cafe Demal) and had two cakes there, and then Cynthia suggested visiting this famous local beer place since nowhere else to go). Stopped by Mirabell Gardens after the beer.. such a lovely and well kept garden with flowers of all colors and the Pegasus fountain where they filmed Do-Re-Mi. A bit hard to believe and imagine that these are the real places they used in the show back in the 60s. We sat at some bench in the gardens and just saw people walk past.. mmm relax a bit before going back hotel to take bus to airport.
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| Cafe Demal where we had two slices of cakes for lunch lol |
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| Mirabell Gardens, super nice and well kept |
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| Still admiring Mirabell Gardens |
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| Would be perfect with an ice cream in hand |
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| Cute toddler picking flowers |
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| We decided to walk to the beer garden in their local beer brewery |
and... to end it all, I LOVE Salzburg!
And...... that's how I brought back a part of Salzburg back home with me.
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| Mozart's head! |
hehe see, what happened was that all along, I always thought a piano should somewhat have a mini head statue of a famous musician sitting on top (dunno why.. maybe give the pro feel? haha and also dunno why always wanted Beethoven's head - sounds crude isn't it?) but then I saw Mozart's version here and I thought ok why not Mozart! And upon close scrutiny, Cynthia & I agreed that he is more handsome than Beethoven hahaa at least from the sculptures we saw in the shops. And so.... I lugged this heavy thing from one of the souvenir shops back to London, so I can place it on top of my piano when I get back home! Super satisfied and happy that I finally managed to fulfill this secret wish after so long :D
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